The Castle Gates, Merchiston Castle School, Colinton Road, Edinburgh

The Castle Gates, located at Merchiston Castle School on Colinton Road in Edinburgh, is a 2-storey, 5-bay L-plan classical house built in 1929 by architects Dick Peddie & Walker Todd. The building features a piend roof and is harled with ashlar dressings, including a base course, a cill course at the first floor, and an eaves course. The windows have projecting ashlar cills.

On the northeast elevation, a long flight of paved steps with low coped edges leads to the central entrance, which consists of a 2-leaf timber panelled door set within a roll-moulded architrave topped by a bracketed semi-circular pediment. The fenestration is regular, with paired windows in the outer bays, while the service wing on the outer right has irregular fenestration.

The southeast elevation has two bays, featuring a canted window on the ground floor to the left and a bipartite window on the ground floor to the right, with regular fenestration above.

The southwest elevation includes half-glazed timber panelled French doors in the centre, framed by a roll-moulded architrave and a blind tablet above, which has a projecting cornice supported by scrolled brackets. This elevation also has regular fenestration across five bays, with the service wing on the outer left being recessed and having irregular fenestration.

The northwest elevation is irregularly fenestrated, featuring a half-glazed timber door at ground level to the right within a plain ashlar surround, and three piend-roofed dormers breaking the eaves at the first floor. Most elevations have 8 and 9-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, while some 4-pane timber casement windows are found in the northwest wing. The roof is covered with piended grey slate and stone ridge tiles, and there are modern ventilation pipes on the roof. The building has buff painted cast-iron rainwater goods with enclosed guttering, and tall harled stacks with projecting ashlar cornices and paired brown cans.

Inside, there is a half-glazed timber panelled inner door leading to the entrance lobby. The rest of the house has not been inspected but appears to retain original features.